Scientists Develop New Antibody For Virus That Infects 95% of People - ScienceAlert

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is one of the world's most common viruses, thought to be lurking in 95 percent of adults. For most people, it causes no obvious symptoms. But EBV is more than a short-term infection. Once it enters the body, EBV can stay for life, and it has been linked to several cancers, multiple sclerosis, and other severe health complications. Now, scientists have given us a promising new way to fight it. A team from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and the University of Washington in the US developed antibodies that target two proteins on the surface of EBV particles back in February. These proteins help the virus unlock access to our B cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a central role in the immune system. Blocking their activity would prevent EBV from taking hold in the first place and may also be enough to prevent its reactivation later in life. An electron micrograph showing Epstein-Barr virus particles. (NIAID)In experiments with mice carrying human-like immune systems, one of those antibodies protected the animals from EBV infection.

We’re sharing this article early to provide faster access to peer-reviewed, accepted research. It is citable and carries a permanent DOI. This version is subject to further edits and will be replaced automatically by the final Version of Record. All legal disclaimers apply. AbstractExtreme precipitation events increasingly threaten historic buildings in river basins, yet existing studies lack a basin-scale perspective on nonlinear flood risk mechanisms. Taking the Minjiang River Basin as the study area, this research integrates hydrological simulation (SCS-CN), machine learning (XGBoost-SHAP), and spatial autocorrelation analysis to assess flood risk for 5482 historic buildings. Results reveal three key patterns: flood hazard decreases from downstream to upstream with belt-like aggregation along rivers; vulnerability shows a spatial mismatch, being higher upstream and lower downstream; integrated risk exhibits a southeast-high to northwest-low gradient with strong clustering in estuarine and midstream valleys. Key drivers, including impervious surfaces, vegetation cover, and topography, demonstrate significant nonlinear threshold effects and multi-factor coupling.